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Show s ii I - ' - . es Nesse' a.s . 4 a 1, ss , J V . . I I ' A Ctory of Honap4i?j in SY CT.TiAJ.T.UTZ . rSIii. . I7evada and San Francisco. (Copyright by Bobbs-MerriU Ccv) "Oh, yes." breathed Rosamund with a melancholy- sigh. , . , - . . The Colonel walked to the other, window, win-dow, muttering 1n hfs wrath. i . (To B Continued.) LOOK II CHAPTE&Vt Readjustment. Jane and July parsed,, and the life In the De Soto house wu rery uneventful. As soon as the group of quests left June requested her. sister .-to ask no more vis-p- - ltors for a time, and the midsummer j, .; days filed by, unoccupied 1J their opulent, , sun-bathed splendor, : . The blow at first crushed her. Despite the warnings she had received. It had come upon, her with the stunning force of the entirely unexpected. The very fact that Jerry had teen -attacked by scandal had. lent an. exalted fervor to her belief In him. Even now, had there been - a possibility of her (continuing In this belief, she would have persisted.. -Weak, loving women have an extraordinary talent tal-ent for self-deception,. and June combined with weakness and love an irrepressible opUml8m. She tried to plead for him with herself, argued his case - as before a tern Judge, attempted. in her ignorance to find extenuating circumstances fori him, and then came face to face with the damning, incontrovertible fact that be himself had admitted. -- ' . It was a blasting experience. Had she known him less well, had their acquaintance acquaint-ance been of -shorter duration, the blow - would probably have killed her love. But the period of acquaintance had been long, the growth of affection gradual. By the time the truth waa forced upon her, her passion -had struck its roots deep Into her heart, and she -was not strong enousn to . ' tar It out. , ,- In the Ions; summer- days, -wandering: about tha -deserted, glowlnr rdnj - she bea-ar tha work of reconstructing- her . 'ideal. She-told Tierself that she would , always kT him. .but now it was with, no confidence, no proud Joy in a noble and upliftins; thins;. "With aonlxin; throes of rebirth, her feeling; for him passed from the soft, aelf-surrenderlnf worship of a airl to the protective and forgiving pas-flon pas-flon of a woman. As it changed ahe c hanged with it. The suggestion of the r tttt that had lingered in her vanished. reshBess of her youth went f or ver. The evanescent beauty that bap-Vblnesa bap-Vblnesa had given her. which on the day Myt . Barclay's declaration, had reached Its I olimajc, shriveled like a flower in the ' heat of a fire. She looked pale, pinched and thin. Eying her image in the glass, she marveled that any man could find her attractive. . In the first period of her wretchedness she waa numbed. Then, the house swept of its guests and she and Rosamund once more alone, her silence broke and she poured jut her sorrows to her lter. Rosamund Ro-samund heard. the' story from the first day at Fpieys to Its fateful termination In the Senora Kelley's woodland bower. Eh listened with unfailing .sympathy, interrupted by momenta of intense surprise. sur-prise. The revelations of the constant meetings with Barclay., which had been so skilfully kept secret, amaxed and disconcerted dis-concerted her. She tried to conceal her astonishment, as-tonishment, but now and then it broke uL in startled -queries.- I.t-.waa,.ao hard to connect the unconscious and apparently apparent-ly candid June - of rtha winter with thia disclosure of a June who had been so far rfrom candid. It waa nearly impossible to include them in the same perspective. The culprit, engrossed in the recital-of her griefs, was oblivious of her sisters growing state of shocked amaze, which sometimes took the form, of silence, and occasionally expressed- itself ;in gently probing questions. .."., . "But, June," she could not help saying in protest, "didn't you realise something wasn't all right when you saw he'd rather nitt you outside than see you at homer June turned on her an eye of cold dlBap- P"Nol And I don'J see now that that's gdt anything to . do. with it" ; - ' Koaamund subsided; meekly, unable to follow the intricacies of her. sister s men- j ' tal processes. I She did not argue with June-4t waa hopeless in the sufferer's present state of mind-and she made few comments on ' Barclay's behavior. But she bad her opinion of him, and it waa that he. was one of the darkest villains. As to her opinion of -June S part in -the story she waa a loyal soul and bad none. All she ' felt was -a flood of sympathy for jtha 7 shocked and wounded girl, and a worried 1 sense of responsibility, in a position with which sne felt herself unable to cope. It was with great relief that, toward the. end of July, she received a letter from the Colonel,: who had been six weeks in lr- - glnia City, -telling- her he would be with , them on the following 8uaday. - . She drove down 'to the train to rneet elm with the intention- of preparing hint . for the change in his favorite. She had written to him that June waa not. well. Driving, back from the station she .had ample, time-to expatiate on this theme and warn nira not to exclaim unduly on her Changed appearance.- r The Colonel began be-gan Jo be appreftvslve and ask peuetra-tlve peuetra-tlve aucstlons, ; to which, she. . had ..no answer. He' leaped out of the carriage st the veranda steps and ran up to.th ilop. where June .stood. , 1 The ihange Jn her, flushed with wel-lcorae, wel-lcorae, was not strikingly apparent at-the fl-Tt glanca. It was later that he began jfto realise It, to-' be startled and then lalarmed. Bhe sat quiet through dinner. Vibbling musingly at her food, once . or twjoa ' not answering him. The empty silence of the house- struck chill onhlm, " " and when he , had commented on the absence ab-sence of visitors, she bad said with sudden sud-den gusty irritation : "There's. .been nobody here. for .over a , month.- I don't want anybody to come. " I'll go away If anybody's asked. . I . like being alone thts way." . . Ha looked at. Resamund with an almost terrified -inquiry.. She surreptitiously raised, her brows ,and gave her head a WIt-was late lnthe evening before he had a chance to speak- Rosamund alone. Then, June having gone to her room, and he and Rosamund being left alone In the sitting-room, e isJd - his - hsnd on " the young girl's shoulder, and said In a voice of-conunantfc- . . , "Now Rosamtind.- I've got to. hear all : about this. What, the, devil's. besn going on -dawnhere?" ' - " She told him the whole story greatly , relieved - to have a listener who could The Colonel -was sUgrtfed -by it He said little but Rosamund, was not half-waVthrough half-waVthrough when . he - began pacing up and 'down, his hands in his pockets, vary- ririw' and then a low ejaculation breairfrrg from him. - He too. y, Astounded As-tounded Ay tireraccoubt of Junes un- - oerhar behavior. He bad -though! the two -girls s. simple-aa; children That his own .particular x darling, could have consented rto. nd- then so -dexterously. i carried out,, a iln , of procedure so .far tfrotn what he-had imagined ;a young girl wouWT do, waa . painful and shocking, to him But as '-June's love could not -be killed. .Jv,f-onv sort f disagreeaWe .reve-. lat ion . s bis. couldJ suffer no abatement from -avrkithcr . kindv Manlike. - he- immediately,, imme-diately,, began to -make -ror her-"She her-"She waa too joung" to be allowed -to- go around- that wayalone.''. he nursf odt ' angrily. - "There '.was nobody take care ' of berfMOiat good sre :t wo olif Sllurfana - like me", and your fatfier- to 'look after. girl? ' r-toldhinr -air months ago he oughtHo. get some kind of an old woman In. the house who'd knl:ia corners..and hang round after yov? : .- 1 ,! Rosamund Dntlnued her story- and ha went on with hfs .Valk. . Now and then, ' as sBe jalludedta Barlay?s part 1n, the affair, csappresd .'-pnrases ' that were, of a -profane character,, broke .irom ; hfm Whsn"ne'had concluded he; stood for a moment by the window looklngr out; c, - "Well, -the misdhiefa- been, done. . He's made the ppof-little soul -Just abhnc ra miserable .-.as-be can be-: I'd (JHe"to. blow - the .topr of bis bea4: off with one of my derringers, but as I can't have that satisfaction -there's -no" 'good-thinking of -H. All we carr do is to try and' A brace- her tip ome Way or Other." ' .. Ro!amvnd made -no answer, and aftr " a moment of silence he continued-: ' "And 1 i'uppose.it-4ets yoor fUoa ouil",. |